Wednesday, July 9, 2014

My Soldier Son

I wish you could meet our soldier son. He is the most amazing person. Of course all mothers know their children are
amazing. I have 5 other children and
they are all amazing. Each of them, at
different times, have stepped out and made some jaw dropping statement, or accomplished
some mind boggling deed that has left me, as their parent, in absolute
awe. So today it is his turn, my soldier
son.

I feel the need to somehow share this with the rest of the
world, not to say – be proud of me, or be proud of him. I want the world to see the humility of this
soldier and thereby come to understand our conflict in a better light.

While the world is focused on soccer and the World Cup it
seems very few are aware of what’s going on in our small nation. I live in Israel. This summer has been very dramatic for
us. A few weeks ago three yeshiva
students aged 16, 16 and 19 were kidnapped and brutally murdered by Arabs. After their bodies were discovered a young
Arab boy was also kidnapped and murdered, this time by Jews. Horrible, it’s all wrong. Children should never be targets like
this. Our entire nation mourns these
deaths. We as a nation condemn all the
murderers, no matter their heritage or faith.

How do we mourn these deaths? We go to hear speakers and biblical
teachings, we visit the grieving families, we do works of charity – and give to
charities in the children’s names, we pray – a lot. How do the Arabs mourn death? Well they rioted, threw Molotov cocktails at
police, threw stones at passing cars, destroyed shops and the light rail system
in their own neighborhoods while chanting “Death to Jews”. They actually celebrated the murder of the
three Yeshiva boys, passing out candy and teaching their children to hold up a
three finger salute as some sort of victory sign. Then they started shooting rockets at Israel.

I think the world at large is not clear what this rocket
barrage is like. The rockets are
specifically aimed at civilian population centers, shopping areas, schools and
hospitals. We have an alert system that lets
us know when a rocket is incoming to our area.
In the south there is barely 15 seconds warning to get to a bomb
shelter. Certainly not enough time to
gather multiple children! If some
building or business is destroyed or, God Forbid, someone is injured or killed the
Arabs rejoice. In the past week over 300 rockets were fired
on civilian targets in Israel. They don’t
stop overnight, but continue 24/7. Who
can sleep, who can work, how can our children just be children?

If we respond by shooting rockets back at the exact location
of the original rocket fire we are vilified by the world. Sometimes there are civilians injured when we
return fire because the Arabs purposely use civilian centers from which to
launch their rockets. They use civilian human shields, knowingly endangering their
own wives and children. We often target
specific military installations, weapons storage facilities, tunnels used for
sneaking into Israel or hiding weapons manufacturing. Our military intelligence is excellent and we
know who is responsible for ordering the rocket fire against us. So we target those terrorists and their
homes. When we intend to fire on their
home we call them and warn them! We drop
leaflets to let the civilian population know exactly when we will target a
specific area. We do everything in our
power to avoid civilian casualties.

Did you know that we send aid to Gaza weekly? Did you know that we provide FREE electricity,
water, gasoline and food to Gaza? They
claim to be oppressed, and they are.
But it is not Israel that is oppressing them. It is their own Islamic leadership that oppresses
them. The billions of dollars in aid
that is sent to the PA is not given to the average Arab. But it is paid as salaries to terrorists
after they kill a Jew and are arrested and jailed. The aid is used to support the terrorist
infrastructure, even to buy weapons.

Do a little research and you will see that the supposed
oppression by Israel is a sham. Most of
the pictures presented on the internet as Israel’s influence in Gaza are
actually pictures of the wounded and casualties in Syria and Iraq. The BBC recently did an expose on this; you
can find it easily by searching on the internet. Israel is an open, free and democratic
society. People are not discriminated
against because of their race, color, creed or sex. There are hundreds of thousands of Arabs
living peacefully in Israel, enjoying a higher standing of living than myself! But Hamas, the PA, Islamic Jihad, and the many
other terror organizations here lie because it suits their needs. Their only defined goal is to free the world
of Jews and destroy the only Jewish state in the world. They say this boldly in their charters and
the world chooses not to see.

I tell you all this so that you can understand the world we
live in, that my soldier son lives in. Did
I mention he is only 20 years old, and has been in the army for only a
year? We hadn’t been able to speak with
him recently because of the security necessary to protect his Army unit. But last night he received permission to call
home. We talked for almost two
hours. He has become a philosopher in
the last year. He loves his family and friends
fiercely; loves his army unit fiercely; he loves Israel fiercely. He trusts G-d to lead him, teach him, and safeguard
him. He carries a gun and knows how to
use it, he is a good shot. He told me he
knows he will do everything in his power to keep the members of his unit safe. But he asks us all to pray for him, because
he doesn’t want to have to use his gun.
He fears what taking another life will do to him. It doesn’t matter to whom that other life belongs;
he knows that is crossing a line. He
says that life is sacred, created by G-d, given as a gift to all humanity. He wants G-d’s wisdom as he faces those who
have pledged their lives to take his. He
does not pray for victory, he prays for wisdom.

My soldier son was friends with one of the murdered yeshiva boys,
the 19 year old. He saw the boy after
their bodies were found. He asked me,
why is it so many hate us just because we are Jews? Who can answer that question? There is no answer. Seeing his friend’s body did not fill him
with hate for the murderers. It filled
him with sorrow for the future his friend would not have, and the joy and
goodness the world lost when these boys were murdered.

So I ask you all to pray for my amazing soldier son. Pray for all the Israeli soldiers. When you pray keep in mind please that my son
is really not unusual at all. His
philosophy embodies Judaism. We as a
nation struggle with these issues. We believe
all life is sacred. That is why “Shock
and Awe” is not the name of our offensive in Gaza. The name is Defensive Edge, because we only
aim to defend our own lives. I will
leave you with Bibi’s famous quote;

If the Arabs were to lay down their guns tomorrow, there would be no war. If Israel were to lay down theirs, there would be no Israel

Jerusalem

The Kotel

Music at the Kotel

Qaseria

Hof Quaseria

Hof Ha Carmel

Sunset over the Med

Laila Tov

Followers

About Me

My husband, two youngest sons, and I made Aliyah to Israel in July of 2008. This blog contains postings from a journal I began in February of the same year. It is my hope to give you a glimpse of life in the land. Happy reading!